Author: Mike Chiappetta

The current champion has all but abandoned the featherweight division. He’s moved up and out to a higher weight class and a higher-priced zip code, but his presence looms over the rest of the 145-pounders as a specter of gold. Everybody wants him, but Conor McGregor only cares about money, which is, to be fair, how it’s supposed to be in prizefighting.  

Filling in the power vacuum was the purpose of UFC 200’s interim title match between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar. That realization is kind of depressing considering the accomplishments of both men, but here we are. MMA can be kind of cruel like that.

Even after winning by unanimous decision Saturday night, Aldo remains at the mercy of McGregor’s whim. He may have restaked his claim to the top slot in the division, but it is largely ceremonial. So long as McGregor is parading around the world with that shiny belt on his shoulder, what exactly does Aldo’s mean? 

Depending on how you look at it, it is either a divisional placeholder or a handcuff connecting him to McGregor. Either way, it is virtually meaningless unless and until he can trade up for the real thing.

That seemed clear to Aldo in the seconds after the result—ironically, exactly the same 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 scores as their first match at UFC 156—was announced. 

“I had one goal and it’s to beat this guy,” he said, pointing toward McGregor, who was sitting in the first row of the audience. “And you can bet that next time I’m in there, I will beat him.”

His performance might not have convinced everyone.

While the scorecards seemed decisive, the fight was closer than those numbers make it appear. In fact, FightMetric statistics showed that the two ended with exactly the same total of landed strikes: 81 apiece.

The difference was in the power. 

While Edgar went with his usual stick-and-move style, Aldo’s advantage in dynamic athleticism started manifesting from the second round on. He stuffed all 11 of Edgar’s takedown tries and piled up significant strikes, landing several knees to the face and straight right hands that left Edgar’s face bloodied.

Prior to the bout, Edgar said he needed to get off to a faster start than he did the first time they faced off. In that fight, he did better as the minutes ticked by. He accomplished that objective by winning the first round on two of the three scorecards, but this time it was Aldo who found a new comfort level with each passing moment.

In a way, that made perfect sense.

For the first time in his UFC career, after all, Aldo came into the fight having to face self-doubt. He hadn’t lost in more than a decade, a span of 18 straight fights, and then after a year of lead-up, promotional hype and trading verbal bombs with McGregor, and with all the chips were on the line, he was shockingly crushed in a 13-second knockout. 

The result was so stunning it almost did not compute. Aldo retreated back to Brazil and regrouped, but he couldn’t escape the whispers about what the loss meant for him.

Had all of the years of sparring and fighting caught up to him? Was his chin suddenly compromised? Had he overreached in the emotion of the moment and made a crucial error?

Any and all were possible, but no one except Aldo could have factual insight into how it affected him. And in the weeks before UFC 200, he tried to downplay all of those possibilities, saying that he had nothing to learn from the defeat.

That was a worrisome reaction, if only because it is almost universally believed to be true that you learn more from losses than wins.

Aside from that, he signed on to face someone brimming with confidence. Edgar came into the rematch with the feeling he wouldn’t be denied. After an uncharacteristic losing streak, he reinvented himself with some additional power to go with his stick-and-move striking style and brilliant wrestling transitions. He reeled off a five-fight win streak, including three stoppages.

Despite his past loss to Aldo by unanimous decision in 2013, Edgar came into the fight favored to win on most sportsbooks, according to Odds Shark. 

Edgar also felt Aldo’s doubt would be a factor.

It wasn’t. 

His stand-up was crisp and accurate, and while he never dropped or staggered Edgar, he did enough to make you think that the McGregor result was an aberration.

There will only be one way to prove that, though, and that’s to do it against McGregor. And that’s where things get tricky.

McGregor has Nate Diaz coming up in August, and while a second loss against him may leave The Notorious with no choice but to return to featherweight, a win could lead him anywhere.

On Saturday night, UFC President Dana White tried to lessen that possibility, saying that no matter the result, McGregor would head back down to face Aldo. But this is MMA, where promises are often made and broken with the speed of a flyweight jab. If either McGregor or the UFC senses a bigger payday elsewhere, Aldo may be left behind. And the thing is, he’s been around long enough to know it.

He’s in purgatory now, a passive observer in a legendary career. If that doesn‘t seem fair, that’s the cost of losing a grudge match and awaiting a new one. 

“I’m prepared,” Aldo said in the post-fight press conference. “We can fight right now if he wanted to. We’re just going to have to see if he keeps his word, and if he doesn’t show up, I’m just going to have to see him somewhere else to fight him.”

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Mark Henry tells a story about Frankie Edgar that explains the ferocity of his competitiveness. Often in the week before fights, Henry—Edgar’s boxing coach—hosts a cookout at his house. This was one of those days, and during the festivities, a game of flag football kicked off in his yard, with both adults and children participating.

Edgar was, shall we say, in must-win mode.

“He was stiff-arming the kids playing flag football with him,” he told Bleacher Report, laughing at the memory. “I tackled him and broke his toe. But that’s how Frankie is. Super competitive. He plays checkers, whatever, he doesn’t want to lose.”

So then, you have to wonder how Edgar survived the one-year stretch between February 2012 and February 2013, when everything was falling apart. After a career trajectory that followed the path of a Wall Street bull market, Edgar had lost three in a row across two divisions. Title hopes were dim. Opportunities were slipping.

In a sport where lower-weight fighters age faster than most, Edgar was 31 and facing down the real possibility of a decline. Yet here he is now, three years later, and unbeaten since. Five victories in a row, including wins over Chad Mendes, Urijah Faber and B.J. Penn.

And now at UFC 200, a chance at redemption against Jose Aldo, who was coincidentally the last man to beat him. 

“It was definitely dark times when I looked at myself in the mirror, but then you look around you and see it’s not the end of the world,” Edgar told Bleacher Report. “The people who cared about me still care about me. My kids are still happy. That took the pressure off. I still hate that I lost three times in a row, but that helped me deal with it better.”

The perspective shift and resulting success has a title back within reach now. In facing Aldo on Saturday, the two will square off for the interim UFC featherweight championship. 

A win would make him only the third fighter to wear gold at two different weight classes, joining his old foe Penn and the legendary Randy Couture.

Ordinarily, an interim belt is looked at with a sideways glance or a yawn; it’s mostly considered a placeholder for the top contender. But in this case, it’s certainly possible the winner will one day be upgraded due to the belief of many that current champ Conor McGregor will never make 145 again and defend the belt.

“I’m going to say no, he never fights there again,” Edgar said. “Every time it comes down to me, he finds a way to avoid me. Don’t get me wrong: he is the champ and that’s why I wanted him. I’d much rather fight the champion, beat him and take the belt so no one can have any questions about who the best is.”

Henry is far more blunt.

“I think Frankie would destroy him,” he said. “At 145, I don’t think it’s worth giving him the time of day. This dude ain’t Frankie, I’ll put it that way. This guy has been stopped three times already. He’s not in the same realm of toughness and mentality as Frankie.”

Few fighters publicly voice a concern that time is of the essence, even if it is. Careers are generally short, but most generate a self-belief that they are exceptions to the rule. It’s a necessary trait in a sport so unforgiving. 

Edgar is no different. Ask him how far into the future he can see himself taping up gloves and making the walk, and he won’t offer a number, but his answer says plenty regarding his mindset. Forty-five-year-old Dan Henderson just knocked someone out, he reminds you, while 37-year-old Michael Bisping just became the UFC middleweight champion. 

“When Frankie fades out, I’d love to fade out, too,” said Henry, “But I think we might still be doing this when we’re 50.”

There is nothing irrational about any of this. While Edgar is still fighting at the top of his game, he’s been thinking about his post-fight existence for years, around the time he turned 30 and lost his belt to Henderson.

Recently, Edgar and a partner opened a UFC Gym in North Brunswick, New Jersey, a 26,000 square-foot facility that offers traditional MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, fitness classes and a gym. 

He also co-owns a wrestling school in Toms River, New Jersey, and is preparing to officially launch an activewear line: Move+ Sportswear. He also occasionally works as an analyst for Fox Sports.

“My main goal is still to be the world champion,” he said. “But I’m learning. I don’t want to be blind to everything on the business side. I’m making sure I see what’s going on. I’m conscious of what’s to come in the future, so I am trying to learn as I go while not losing sight of what my real goal is.”

While Edgar may have more things pulling at his time now—he’s also a married father of three—he still carries the same indomitable will to be the best that he’s always had, Henry said. 

Those close to Edgar say it’s like a part of him, like an extra organ in his body. It was just a matter of sharpening his other skills to parallel his drive.

Henry cites Edgar’s win over Sean Sherk in 2009 as the turning point where everything coalesced. Henry had grown up a huge fan of boxer Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, in particular, his movement, footwork and control of distance. It was something he thought could work for Edgar, who was always at deficit of range. 

His fight with Sherk back then was seen as a stepping-stone opportunity for Sherk, a former UFC lightweight champ who was hoping to get another crack at the belt. Instead, after implementing Henry’s vision for a few camps, Edgar found his breakthrough performance, spending the night sticking, moving and confusing Sherk, dominating him in a one-sided win. 

The coach-student relationship between Henry and Edgar is one of the most unlikely success stories in MMA.

A former U.S. Army boxer, Henry held his own dreams of becoming a professional athlete until his body ripped them away from him.

One day, when Henry was 21 years old and in the middle of a match, he simply collapsed.

“I flatlined,” he said. 

He was revived, and doctors later discovered he had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a rare disorder in which an extra electrical pathway causes a rapid heartbeat. Henry never fought again.

By the time he met Edgar a few years later, he had exactly zero interest in MMA. Sure, he had tried to watch it a few times, but when the fight hit the ground, he’d tune out, uninterested.

Their union only came about when Henry’s son, then seven years old, signed up for a wrestling class. The coach, Steve Rivera, was Edgar’s first wrestling coach years ago, and after he learned of Henry’s background, asked him to hold pads for Edgar.

Intent on focusing on his son’s wrestling progress, he declined. Over and over, he declined.

Finally, after some time passed, and he knew his son was well adjusted to the program, he gave in to the standing request.

“I thought he had a lot of great qualities,” Henry said. “He was smart, and he had speed and power. I remember telling Steve, ‘I think whoever trains him is lucky because he’s going to be really good one day.’ I definitely thought he was special. I didn’t know MMA, so I didn’t know about the ground game, but he had something about him. I used to spar him a little in the beginning, and if you hit him once, he’d come back even harder. Whatever discipline he put himself into, he got it.”

The rematch between Edgar and Aldo is compelling for their flip-flopped fates since their first go-round. Back then, Aldo was riding high as the undisputed, nearly untouchable king; now he will have to face and overcome the confidence crumbling that usually follows a first career knockout loss. Meanwhile, Edgar is full of self-assurance.

Apparently, many others wonder how the surrounding circumstances will impact the actual fight; According to OddsShark, while Aldo was installed as the favorite, Edgar has flipped the line to become a slight favorite to win.

Historically, too, Edgar has done well in rematches, including cementing his title reign with a second win over B.J. Penn in dominant fashion after a slim victory the first time around. 

Both Edgar and Henry say he needs a better start this time. In the first bout, Aldo swept the first three rounds on the judges’ cards. He can’t let that happen this time.

“For sure, he’s definitely going to have some demons to get through to go to our fight,” he said. “He may be able to talk himself up and say he’s fine, but he’s not going to know for sure until we fight.”

Win or lose, Edgar’s got an ace in the hole. He can make bantamweight. Edgar walks around at around 152 pounds, bigger than his teammate Marlon Moraes, who is the current World Series of Fighting bantamweight champ and considered one of the best fighters outside of the UFC.

Henry says Edgar would “definitely” give 135 a try in an attempt to become the first three-division champion.

But that’s in the future. A lot still is. Fighter, father, businessman, entrepreneur. For Edgar, another title is always welcome.

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